Interesting observation on the job creation front - see here and here . I realize that there are " lies, damn lies, and statistics ." But in my various courses that required plotting a trend, my profs would have given me an extremely hairy eyeball if my plot had anything quite so blatant in it. I doubt you can blame the current administration, they are hurt by it (and weren't even in power during the time in question). But we all know the previous administration would never engage in diddlin...

Between stuff like this and this I've figured out the theme song for the new liberal talk radio (and for the leftist anti-war types that aren't just against us). It is The Folk Song Army by Tom Lehrer

So I'm sitting in Freedom Square, DC, (13th & Pennsylvania ave. NW), getting ready to listen to some Daiko drumming (group is from Japan). I just finished off a bowl of shrimp tempura in a Styrofoam bowl. And I've been taking notes for a blog post when I get to an internet connection on a hand-held computer. Once again, I realize the extent of the age of miracles we live in. If I wanted to, I could be writing this post nearly live, and my readers, wherever in the world you are, could be r...

Seeing people getting their pictures taken with the AOL running man at part of the Cherry Blossom festival in DC today was vaguely amusing. Do people in other countries get their pictures taken with marketing icons?

Go read Mr. Hanson. Says it better than I can, he does.

I've been coming to the conclusion that I don't give a tinker's damn about "World Opinion". "World Opinion" wants a tame power, under their control, not interfering with their sweetheart deals, and spending money in their economies, and not looking behind the curtain. What they have is a self-aware power, stirring up trouble and dealing with it before it gets out of hand.

I'm going to I-Con up at SUNY Stony Brook this weekend. I'll be blogging onsite from there from time to time, taking advantage of my wireless carrier's 3G service to connect at dial-up speeds. But hey, it beats carrier pigeons...

http://wheelgun.blogspot.com/2009/04/virginia-should-outlaw-guns-on-campus.html – I can’t add anything more than she did

The question is: “Do I have a right to defend myself?” The answer must be Yes or No.

Rohirrim To which race of Middle Earth do you belong? brought to you by Quizilla

Well, the first day of con was survived. We met up with a couple who lives in the area; DW met the wife of the couple via the needlework list she runs, but they are also gamers, and knew of some of my gaming friends. The end of the day was the Voltaire concert. 10,000 screaming goths, it seemed like. But it was fun, though a little low-key... We'll see how the rest of the weekend goes - it turns out that I managed to find stuff I was interested in to occupy me from 10 am to 5 pm tomorro...

So here I am at Icon again, and I remembered the necessary to get online from the con. (Forgot almost everything else but that - including my entire laptop bag - at home, but luckily my laptop, the power adapter for it, and the necessary to connect my laptop to my phone (no EVDO card for me) came with me. Once again, I preregistered, and once again was glad of it. Only had a 25 minute wait in line, and was able to pick up my badge. I'm currently waiting for a Dungeon Delve session to start...

In the spirit of James Taranto's (Of the Wall Street Journal) successful attempt to bring the word Kerfuffle back into more general use, I would like to bring the terms laconic and peripatetic back into daily use. (Definitions here and here ). As you can see by following my word links, I'm particularly trying to attach them to one of the leading lights of blogdom (a word which I much prefer to blogosphere, myself). Can we get a google-bomb going for this?

I don't read the New York Times much any more (i'd say I don't read them at all unless someone else links to them, but I do occasionally read them via AvantGo on my handheld, without anyone linking to them). And I did come across this article (login required, bugmenot has it) because Jim Miller linked to it. But it is an interesting article nonetheless. It tells of a small town in Alaska that currently gets their power from a diesel-fired plant, having to barge in the fuel to run it ever...

Via the peripatetic Instapundit comes this explanation of why SDB no longer blogs on politics. I probably wouldn't have gotten into blogging if it weren't for him (and for our host linking to one of his essays in the monthly newsletter). He had a profound impact on me, and I wish him the best.